


Black Honey

by orphan_account



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst and Tragedy, Animal Deaths (But Not Sumo), Big Damn Heroes Hank Gavin and RK900, Biological Warfare, Canon-Typical Violence, Comfort Food, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Whump, Depression, Gavin Reed Redemption, Gen, Gen But Shippy If You Want It To Be, Kidnapping, Major and Minor Character Deaths But Not Really/It's Misleading, Massacre, Mystery, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Terrorism, dead bodies, suicides, twist ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 17:32:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18211412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: First, Connor had disappeared without a trace. Second, Hank's friends suddenly lost their minds and refused to help. Third, a new terrorist group sent a video of them testing their latest weapon on Connor.Fourth, Hank found two unlikely allies in this mess.But what was this sweet-smelling black smoke filling the air of Detroit?





	Black Honey

"C'mon, Sumo, not today. My knees are killing me."

Hank was exasperated. His old dog stood frozen in the doorway, whining and refusing to budge no matter how much his owner tugged at his leash. This was the second time the animal refused to walk down the front steps of their new home.

"I could carry him down" Connor offered from where he stood in the yard.

"No way. I'm not spoiling him like that; he'll never learn to use the stairs. Besides, what makes you think I can't carry my own dog?"

"Well, you're supposed to lift with your knees, which I believe are currently perpetrating a murder?"

"Look, Con-" Hank was instantly cut off from his and Connor's teasing by Sumo barking and charging at something in the street. With Hank still holding the leash the man was yanked forward and fell. His forehead smacked gracelessly against the edge of the bottom step and he lost his grip on the leash.

Hank lay splayed across the steps for at least thirty seconds, seeing stars and only faintly hearing Sumo's ceaseless barking. He was finally able to peel himself up and shift to sit on the bottom step.

"Damn, my head." Hank felt the sore spot with a hand and it came away bloody.

"Shit. Connor, could you grab Sumo and come tell me if this looks bad?"

No answer.

Looking up all Hank saw was Sumo standing in the street woofing at nothing, his leash dragged behind him on the pavement.

Connor was nowhere in sight.

"Where'd you go, Connor?!" Hank raised his voice. Getting no response Hank pulled himself off of the stoop and patrolled the yard. After that proved futile he checked the house. He went to other yards. He tried calling Connor's internal phone line number. No dice.

After searching every location he could think of Connor turning up at Hank still didn't want to believe it. It took quite a while for Hank to admit that Connor was truly gone.

 ~

 

 

"The fuck do you mean 'low priority'?! This is one of our own we're talking about! I told ya a million times this isn't like him. Connor's been taken!"

"Hank, we've been completely swamped lately. I've stuck my neck out for you more times than I can count. I don't have the time or the resources for one android out of all the missing and murdered humans we deal with on a daily basis. If you want someone to fuss over a machine than go find Markus."

Hank couldn't believe what he was hearing from Captain Fowler. He really thought that the man he used to call a friend was warming up to Connor and the other deviants in their employment. But he must have been wrong.

"Fuck you. I don't even know you anymore."

Hank slapped his badge on Fowler's desk and slammed the glass door for the last time.

 ~

 

 

"I'm grateful for Connor's help in turning the odds in our favor by freeing the androids from CyberLife tower. That much is true."

Markus spoke calmly, looking out the window of New Jericho Tower. Hank sat nervously in a chair across from its leader.

"But his crimes against us are...unforgivable. I've had time to see that now. Even if I were sympathetic to the deviant hunter there's not much I can do on my own. And I refuse to put my people in danger by ordering them to help someone who wronged them so much in the first place. I'm sorry Mr. Anderson, it's nothing personal. But I can't help."

Hank gritted his teeth and attempted to keep calm himself. "He could be dead. Whoever's got him could be torturing him. And they're probably human, too. You're really gonna abandon one of you're own like this?"

Markus turned to Hank. "For the people who truly matter to me? Any day. I think you should leave."

~

 

 

Hank kept calling Connor's number. He never got through. There wasn't even a dial tone. He tried texting as well. Telling Connor that he hopes he's alright. That he wants him home so badly. That he loves him. Anything Hank could think of that would comfort Connor if he could read them but was being held against his will, or that would convince Connor to come back if he left on his own accord.

It was three and a half weeks since Connor's disappearance when Hank first noticed the dark smoke. He had been texting Connor as he walked through town when he noticed a sickly sweet smell in the air. Looking around to find the source Hank saw low-hanging clouds of black smoke. He chalked it up to heavy city smog on a cloudy day and assumed the smell was emanating from some food cart he had passed.

 ~

 

 

At a month and and twelve days since he last saw Connor Hank was losing hope and losing leads. He'd tried to get information from locals, mostly sympathetic deviants that he hoped were trustworthy, but everything went cold.

Until the night he received a phone call on his third bottle as he eyed his revolver.

"Hank? It's, uh, it's me. Long time no see. How are you holding up?"

"Connor?!"

"What? No! Damn, Anderson, how much have you been drinking? It's Gavin Reed."

Hank sighed deeply. "The hell do _you_ want, Reed?"

"Nice to hear from you, too. Well, we got some evidence in storage that Cain showed me and...you really need to see it."

"I don't work at the station anymore, dumbass, you know that. You wanna get your ass fired?" Hank ran his hand through his hair. "Who's Cain again?"

"Who's- ugh, really? He's my- my partner, remember? The RK900 android? Spitting image of Connor?"

Hank's heart skipped a beat hearing Connor's name from another human's mouth after so long. "Oh yeah, him. Kind of a...reserved fellow ain't he?"

Gavin chuckled. "Yeah, he's shy. But I'll be honest with you, he's the one that finally turned me around on the whole android thing."

"That's sweet and all, Reed, but go on about this evidence thing. What's so interesting that you gotta call me this late?"

Gavin's voice became stern. "It's Connor, Hank. It's a video...of Connor."

 ~

 

 

Hank, Gavin, and Cain found themselves seated anxiously at Hank's kitchen table, laptop open and ready to watch the footage loaded up from the stolen DPD flash drive.

Cain spoke quietly. "Mr. Anderson, if I may, the video evidence has been transcribed to text. You don't have to watch it as such-"

"No, I'm watching it" Hank said with finality. To the older man it seemed that Cain was the one who was most dreading the video. His grimacing and slight fidgeting said it all. And who would blame the kid? No one would want to watch someone who looks just like you be tortured.

"No one needs to see it if they don't want to, alright?" Gavin all but shouted. Silence followed. Hank pressed play.

The footage was dark but Hank could make out Connor right away. He'd been strapped down to some sort of metal table, shirtless but otherwise clothed. He looked like hell. His hair was disheveled and a bit bloody with a telltale blue tinge. That was certainly worrying. Hank wondered if his captors had needed to beat him into submission. Connor wouldn't go down easily after all.

Numerous wires were hooked to him externally and internally. Some nodes were attached to his skin while other areas of his neck and torso had plastic panels slid aside so the wires could nestle themselves into his inner workings. Connor had always insisted that he didn't feel pain in the same way humans did and Hank never wanted more than that moment for it to be true.

Humanoid figures hovered over the android. They were dressed in black hooded sweaters and pants and wore black masks of some kind of hard material that only had openings for the eyes and mouth.

One of the figures said something unintelligible to Connor, then immediately slapped him in the face. Hank took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The figure grabbed Connor's face in his gloved hand and yelled something about a broken robot. It was then that Hank noticed Connor's eyes. They were completely black in both iris and sclera. Voids that made it impossible to tell where Connor was looking, or if he could see at all. Hank's stomach sank at the thought that they may have blinded him.

After various poking and prodding from the mysterious captors Connor seemed to be attempting to speak. After stuttering a bit he finally forced it out in a whisper.

"H-Hank..."

Hank paled.

"Daddy isn't coming" one of the shrouded figures hissed.

Hank thought he was going to throw up.

In the video the same figure commanded another to "shut it up," and it took at least two figures to produce a large, transparent tube from out of frame and shove it into Connor's mouth and down his throat. It would be uncomfortable for anyone but Connor seemed too weakened to struggle against it.

As if it weren't bad enough a black sort of paste or sludge made its way through the tube and right into Connor. He had no choice but to swallow it, though Hank wasn't well versed in android anatomy and had no idea where it went to once it got inside.

Thankfully the nightmarish video was cut off at that point.

The three witnesses sat in silence once again. Gavin sighed and shook his head.

"The fuck was that black stuff at the end, anyway?" he asked, looking at Cain.

"I'm unsure. I can't analyze it's properties from sight alone. There isn't enough information to expose the kidnapper's identities, either. I'm so sorry."

Gavin patted his partner's shoulder.

Hank fought tears welling into his eyes. "How long ago is this video from?"

"Apparently it was sent to the department anonymously eight days after Connor went missing-"

"Why the hell did you wait so fucking long to tell me-"

Gavin held his hands up. "Me and Cain only found out about it a few hours before I called you. Wasn't easy gettin' it out of there, either. Sorry, Hank, but we're doing our best. Not only is this damn thing virtually untraceable, but those fuckers at the precinct have all lost their minds. No one's investigating this video. They don't give a shit about androids anymore. There's been lay offs and everything. Only reason they keep Cain around is because of me kissing their asses. They still treat him like crap, though."

Hank shook his head in frustration. "Sounds like it's even worse than when I left."

After a few beats Cain asked a question.

"Has anyone noticed an increase in the smog in the air lately?"

"Yeah" Hank answered.

"Why?" Gavin asked.

Cain averted his eyes. "I don't...I was just wondering if anyone else noticed."

 ~

 

 

After finding out that Gavin and Cain had also been trying to help find Connor the whole time Hank and the two detectives kept in touch. Unfortunately they didn't make much progress. Cain couldn't look to members of New Jericho for help because they trusted him even less than they did Connor.

Android and human relations declined on the daily. All the while the black smoke in the air thickened. Detroit's dark smog became viral online. Meteorologists could offer no explanation. Chemical experts were unable to ascertain if the smoke was harmful to humans or androids. Investigators announced multiple times that they had found locations where the smoke was emanating from but could find no evidence of how it started once arriving at the scene.

Hank tried to keep himself busy to stay sane. In the time between the successful android revolution and Connor's disappearance his partner and best friend had encouraged him to eat healthier, which led to the two of them taking up cooking as a hobby. Without Connor around Hank still cooked often as a way to stem his grief and remember something that Connor loved doing. And after quitting his job as a police lieutenant the older man needed some way to make a living.

It was the day Hank was hired at a local restaurant that the first attack took place.

The carnage was broadcast across every media platform for all to see. Hank saw the aftermath before the attack itself. Mangled corpses of humans and androids alike lying in the streets. They were covered in gashes and wounds as if hunted by animals.

And coated in a black sludge.

'No. No, it has nothing to do with that' Hank told himself. It was probably hot tar.

But when Hank saw the cellphone videos and uploaded first hand android memories of the attack he could deny it no longer.

A peaceful day outside of an outdoor shopping mall was torn apart by two humanoid figures in black clothes and masks. They were identical to the ones seen in Connor's video. They drew odd looks from the start, but before anyone could question them they began throwing small bombs into the crowd. The bombs were some sort of almost soft pouch or sack that was filled with the offending black substance. The goop splashed against exposed skin and was clearly corrosive, the victims screaming in pain as they were burned. But it was what happened next that set this apart from any past acts of terrorism.

The victims, both human and android, became hysterical. They behaved as ferals, screeching and clawing at each other. It was as if their first instinct was to kill. Almost every casualty was from injuries inflicted by other victims.

There were slight differences in the effect the substance had on humans verses androids. Some of the humans who avoided injuries from others or themselves seemed to succumb to the sludge itself and die from its toxicity. The androids, on the other hand, did not seem to perish from the black paste itself but only eventually died from injuries as a result of the fighting in the crowd.

The one thing the human and android victims had in common were black eyes.

All of this information made sense in the context of Connor's video. They'd forced this black poison into him while he was weak and restrained so that he wouldn't harm them from its effects. But, being an android, he may not have died from that alone.

Hank was horrified and relieved all at the same time. On one hand, Connor was used a guinea pig to test a biological weapon. He may have even been the first person to come into contact with it directly. But on the other hand there was a possibility that it didn't kill him and he may still be alive.

But if Connor was still alive, Hank realized as he became horrified once more, then they may still be testing and improving the black sludge on Connor to this day. How long would he suffer alone because only three useless people in the entire world cared for him?

 ~

 

 

After the first attack Hank, Gavin, and Cain all attempted to call each other at the same time, coming to the same conclusions but unsure what to do with them. Gavin and Cain at least had the sense to remind the DPD of the video. They could convince them to investigate this new terrorist group dressed in black and at the same time get closer to Connor.

It turned out they had no surviving members to interrogate. One was mauled by the crowd and the remaining shot himself after the police caught up to him. The interesting thing was that the one attacked by the victims was android and the other was human. That complicated motive a bit.

While the investigation went on Hank never stopped texting Connor. Assuming he was still alive was the android's mind still intact after being poisoned? Was he caught in a constant loop of adrenaline-fueled madness just the same as the other victims? Hank began telling Connor to hold on to himself. He told him that no matter what he would find him and bring him home. That this would all just be a bad memory in the back of their minds.

Gavin and Cain texted Connor as well. Gavin started by apologizing for antagonizing him in the past and afterwards began sending videos of cats.

Cain also started by apologizing, in his case for being too timid to get to know Connor. He then began telling Connor how much he looked forward to spending time with him in the future, followed by accounts of intriguing cases they were able to solve at work.

 ~

 

 

Hank really was driving himself insane trying to be patient. He told himself to trust the DPD or the FBI or whoever the hell was trying to find the monsters who stole his partner and murdered dozens of innocents but the fact was that he never trusted any of them. From what Gavin admitted the DPD at least was in shambles.

Honey was one of the few consolations Hank allowed himself. Desserts were his favorite dishes to cook and honey was an ingredient in many of them. It was almost ironic for a gruff man such as himself to be stuffing his guests with small, fluffy, honey-filled treats at the little restaurant he worked at but everyone needed a bit of comfort food now and then, right?

It was one of the reasons the ever-growing black smoke didn't bother him. Hank couldn't quite place the smell the first time he noticed the smog but now he was certain. It smelled of honey.

The first day the city introduced a curfew from the dark smog was the day of the second attack.

Hank knew he should have cared that it happened in the same park he used to take Cole to play in back in the day. The same park he almost shot Connor dead in during a drunken episode. But he couldn't bring himself to care. He was becoming numb.

Seventeen dead. Much less than last time due to the park being much less populated than a busy shopping center. One of the most disturbing aspects of the attack was the fact that multiple animals were effected. They all joined in the massacre and all ended up dead. A large pet dog caused most of the animal-induced damage. Hank tried not to imagine Sumo in that position. He made sure to give his old dog extra affection that day.

 ~

 

 

"Hank, it's me. Look, I can't- I won't explain over the phone but we're coming to your place. Before you say anything about the fucking curfew you and I both know neither of us give a shit. This is- this might be it. It might be over after this."

 ~

 

 

Hank coughed as Gavin and Cain entered the house.

"Get in here already, you're letting that shit inside!"

"Thought you liked the smell of it?" Gavin asked.

"I do, it's just so damn much."

"We may have had a close call on the way here" Cain admitted quietly.

"Snitch" Gavin teased.

"Okay, okay. What's the big...thing? What's going on?" Hank asked impatiently.

"I think we found him" Gavin said.

"What?! Connor's alive? You know where he is?"

"Alive I can't say. We gotta be realistic here. But Cain knows where they've been keeping him and cooking up all the black crap."

"Wha-? What the fuck are those assholes waiting for then?!"

"That's uh, that's kinda the thing. They've completely lost it at the station. Over the deep end. When Cain figured out where the terrorists have been hiding they wouldn't believe him because he's android. Then they accused him of conspiring with them-"

"The fuck?"

"We both got fired."

"...Wow."

"So basically, Hank, it's just us. And it's now or never. The three of us, right into the fray. Because honestly? No one else will."

Hank closed his eyes.

"There is a ninety-three percent chance you will be killed. Are you willing to die for this, Hank?" Cain asked.

Hank opened his eyes.

"For the people that truly matter to me? Any day."

 ~

 

 

"They're calling it black honey" Gavin said from the back seat of Hank's old car.

"Huh?" Hank asked.

"The poison shit. Callin' it black honey now."

"Hmm" Hank muttered. Well wasn't that interesting?

 ~

 

 

Hank was grateful for the cloak of dark smoke for the three of them to sneak through. They slipped unseen into the large building. The place was like a prison and one could easily become lost. But Cain had analyzed the layout and determined the best route. He could also tell from the heat signatures that there were only three living humans and one functioning android present at the moment. Hank had asked hopefully if Cain could tell whether the single android was Connor or not but Cain was unable to be sure.

They found the first body slumped down a staircase. A human male around Hank's age. His hands were bound behind him by a cord that almost reminded Hank of a dog's leash. Black honey surrounded the corpse with no other signs of injury.

"You think they were experimenting on humans, too?" Gavin asked.

"It's certainly plausible" Cain answered.

As they went up they only found more bodies. A male android leaking black honey from his mouth and black eyes. He was covered in injuries, many of which Cain deduced were self-inflicted. A human female bound by rope and dead from multiple injuries but with no signs of contact with the honey.

As the three rounded a corner Cain froze and blocked them off with an arm.

"Someone's here" he whispered.

Everyone unholstered their weapons. One could hear a pin drop. That is until the room erupted quickly into the sounds of gunfire.

Everyone seemed to be missing their targets. Hank thought he got a shot in but it must have been a false alarm. The figure in black took cover behind a concrete pillar. The three intruders debated their next move until suddenly the figure ran out from cover straight into the line of fire. Their body was riddled with bullets but not before they were able to throw a black honey bomb into Gavin.

Except Gavin, who expecting to feel the singe of burning skin and his sanity slipping away, felt no different. He opened his eyes.

Cain had leapt in front of him and taken the hit.

"Fuck!" Gavin yelled. He moved in front of Cain to assess the damage.

Cain, who as an android had no need to, was breathing heavily. His eyes had already turned black. Despite androids supposedly not being able to feel pain he certainly looked like he was in it.

"Cain? What can I do? What do we do?"

Hank approached slowly. "Gavin, you have to stay back. You know-"

"Fuck off! We have to do something!"

Hank put his hands up to hopefully quell any murderous intent either Cain or Gavin may had been developing. "Cain, how are you feeling?"

Cain responded by raising his gun towards Hank.

"No!" Gavin shouted. "Don't hurt anyone, you don't have to. Just- fuck, stay calm. Or something..."

Cain turned his gun on Gavin.

"H-hey, easy buddy. Everything's cool. We can get through this" Gavin tried.

An eternity seemed to pass before Cain broke the silence with an anguished wail.

"I can't- I can't- I can't-!" he screamed

"You can. Believe me, you can. Just put the gun down and we'll find a way to make it better" Gavin begged.

"I- I- I need- to _kill_ -!"

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, okay?" Hank said as calmly as he could manage.

"But- but- I-"

Cain turned the gun to his own head.

 _"Cain!"_ Gavin cried.

He was too late.

Cain fell to the ground, half of his head a mess of metal, plastic, blue blood and black honey.

Gavin all but collapsed on top of him. "No, no, no" he whispered.

Hank felt like punching the concrete pillar in rage but decided against it because he still had someone left to save and a broken hand wouldn't help that. Instead he knelt beside Gavin.

"Gavin, I'm sorry, but you've gotta stay back a little. You're gonna get the honey on you."

Gavin ignored him.

"You had to kill someone and you chose yourself?! How the fuck _dare_ you choose yourself over me?! Your life's worth a million times more than mine! You motherfucker!"

As Gavin shook Cain's body Hank saw that the other human had already gotten his chest covered in Cain's honey. It was only a matter of seconds or minutes until he lost his mind and Hank couldn't risk dying by Gavin's hand before he found Connor.

So he walked away and left them there.

He scaled a couple more flights of stairs, found a couple more corpses, and finally saw the large metal door he'd been waiting for. It really was now or never, wasn't it?

The door wasn't locked or reinforced. Hank didn't have time to think about that and simply yanked it open.

Inside he finally found what he'd been waiting for.

Connor was still strapped down to that metal table from the video. He probably hadn't moved from there in months. He was alive, tossing his head weakly and dribbling black liquid from his dark eyes and his mouth.

The two figures in their hooded sweaters and masks looked genuinely surprised at being caught and must have been unarmed because Hank was able to shoot them both dead in seconds with absolutely no remorse.

Hank ran to Connor's side.

"Connor? Can you hear me?"

Connor looked in Hank's direction, thankfully not blinded after all.

"H-Hank? It's really you? I'm not...dreaming...or?"

"It's me Connor. I've got you. I found you." Hank gently laid his hand on Connor's hair, careful to avoid making direct contact with any honey.

"I've been...reading your messages."

"Uh huh."

"Yes... and Gavin...he's a good friend after all."

Hank gulped. "Yeah, he is. Wouldn't have found you without him."

"C-Cain too. I can't wait to meet him properly, Hank."

Hank felt like he was going to vomit for probably the fifth time that year.

"Let's just see if we can get you outta here and get you some help, alright?"

"Do you really think they can cure this, Hank? I ha-haven't been very up to date on things. T-they've cut off most of my internet connections..."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course they can, Connor."

Hank made to start removing the straps restraining Connor.

"No, Hank, you shouldn't do that. I'll k-kill you, I'm afraid."

"I trust you, Connor. It's gonna be okay. We'll get out of here together."

"Oh, are you sure? I'm...rather certain I'll kill you."

"Just relax. I'm taking them off now."

Hank removed the straps and Connor sighed in relief. They could see where the straps had dug into his artificial flesh and left indentations that may take a while for his programs to heal completely.

"Thank you, Hank. For this. For not...giving up."

"Of course, Connor."

In the blink of an eye Hank was on his back, Connor straddling him and holding onto his neck just shy of cutting off his air, leaking black honey from his eyes onto Hank's face.

"H-Hank! I'm- I'm sorry!"

Hank's eyes were wide with fear but his voice didn't waver. "It's alright, Connor. Everything's okay."

"I- I don't want to k-kill you!"

"I know, I know. But it's kind of too late now; you've got the black stuff all over me."

"No...oh...how do I...? M-maybe I could make it quick?"

"My gun" Hank offered.

Connor pulled Hank's gun out and against his forehead, right between the older man's eyes.

"Hank-!"

"Go ahead" Hank said calmly. The last things he heard were a bang mixed with Connor's shouting.

And all was black.

 ~

 

 

The first thing Hank felt was a searing headache.

He opened his eyes only to shut them again against the bright lights. Trying again Hank opened them slowly and his vision adjusted.

He was in the hospital. The beeping of various monitors should have made that clear in the first place, but Hank's mind was already on other things.

How did he survive a shot to the forehead at point blank range?

Hank brought his hand up and felt the thick bandaging around his throbbing head. He'd definitely had surgery.

Another thought came to him then: How did he survive being exposed to black honey? Humans always died from that eventually. Did they really have a cure for it in time to save him? If that was the case could they have saved Connor and Gavin, too?

That brought Cain to mind and Hank's heart felt heavy. If they cured Gavin the poor guy probably would've rather been left for dead after what happened to his partner.

Just then the door to Hank's room opened.

And who else waltzed right in than Connor himself. Well that answered that. The man that Hank's hellish journey started with. He had so much he needed to talk to him about. At this point Hank would have been content just touching him to make sure he was really there.

As soon as Connor's eyes met Hank's the kid's face lit up. He ran over and grabbed Hank's hand, squeezing it almost to the point of pain.

"Hey, ease up, Connor. You're gonna rip my hand off."

Connor's hand was yanked away. "Sorry. Oh, Hank, I'm so glad you're alright. You've been in a medically induced coma for days."

"Yeah, well, I'd expect longer for getting shot in the damn head."

Connor's face fell. "Shot?"

"Yes, Connor, shot. The thing you did to me with my own gun."

The android looked fearful. "What? What I did to you?"

"Do you not remember what got me here in the first place, Connor?"

"Do _you_? Hank, what on earth was the last thing you remember before waking up just now?"

"I found you in a damn dungeon after Cain blew his own brains out and then let you shoot me in the head because you couldn't help it!"

"Cain? Are you talking about Gavin's partner?" If androids could look pale Connor would be white as a ghost. He looked a mixture of horrified that Hank had sustained serious brain damage and terrified at the possibility that Gavin's partner had committed suicide without anyone telling him until just now.

"Hank, I think we need to call your attending physician. Something's wrong-"

Hank grabbed Connor's wrist. "Woah, wait, before you do anything else can you just tell me your side of the story? What happened to land me in the hospital?"

"Well... we were both going to take Sumo for a walk when he started chasing after some small animal in the road and pulled you down the front steps. You hit your head on the bottom step and became unconscious. I called an ambulance. You'd fractured your skull and needed surgery. For a little while there I thought...I thought you weren't going to make it. But you're here now. I've been so afraid I'd never see you again, Hank."

"Connor..."

Before either of them knew what they were doing Hank and Connor embraced each other, holding on for dear life. Eventually they parted and Hank sighed.

"Does 'black honey' mean anything to you?" he asked the android.

Connor looked to the side in the way he usually did when he was looking up information in his databases. "There is a flower, 'Melianthus comosus,' that produces a nectar know colloquially as 'black honey.' Other uses of the term are associated with a Japanese tea as well as-"

"No, I mean, without looking it up. What do you think of when I say 'black honey'"?

"I think it reminds me of when we cook together. You always seem to prefer sweets. Are you thinking up a new recipe, Hank?" Connor smiled.

"Maybe" Hank smiled back.

 ~

 

 

It did take Hank a bit longer than he'd admit to fully adjust to the fact that he'd lived another life for over two months in his head while his body slept for eight days. For the first couple of weeks he would sometimes forget that Captain Fowler and his friends at the DPD were not the careless strangers that they had been in his dream. He'd also had a few slip ups getting too chummy with Gavin who he would have to remind himself was a bit less friendly in real life as opposed to the dream.

But two good things came out of the nightmare, the first being Cain. After returning to work Hank encouraged Connor to reach out to Cain because the older man just had a hunch that despite the android's bashfulness he would make a good friend to Connor. And he was right.

The second was the honey. Thankful to still have his day job in real life Hank was content with keeping his cooking to a hobby. That didn't mean he couldn't still whip up some delectable desserts.

Hank and Connor's friends and acquaintances turned out to be crazy over the treats made with Hank's secret recipe for what he decided to call "black honey."

**Author's Note:**

> The black smoke was a lingering byproduct of the black honey with mild mood-altering affects on some, hence many of hank's friends not being themselves.


End file.
